{"id":14591,"date":"2014-05-19T11:20:44","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T18:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=14591"},"modified":"2014-05-19T11:33:02","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T18:33:02","slug":"you-cant-read-that-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=14591","title":{"rendered":"You Can&#8217;t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a title=\"teenieharris by Paul Woodford, on Flickr\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/halfmind\/14199741496\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"click to view full sized image on Flickr\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2931\/14199741496_c875fa6fc9.jpg\" alt=\"teenieharris\" width=\"500\" height=\"323\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You Can&#8217;t Read That!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The photo\u00a0is\u00a0titled &#8220;Girl reading &#8216;Mickey Mouse and the Submarine Pirates&#8217; comic book in newsstand with small dog lying across her lap.&#8221; It\u00a0was taken in 1947\u00a0by\u00a0Charles &#8220;Teenie&#8221; Harris,\u00a0lead photographer of one of the USA&#8217;s leading black newspapers, the\u00a0Pittsburgh Courier. I couldn&#8217;t bring myself to\u00a0spoil the photo by superimposing &#8220;You Can&#8217;t Read That!&#8221; on it. You can find out more about Teenie Harris <a href=\"http:\/\/teenie.cmoa.org\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Banned Books News<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>RIP <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/04\/24\/books\/richard-h-hoggart-lady-chatterleys-savior-dies-at-95.html?ref=todayspaper&amp;_r=0&amp;gwh=40F3B9D51FB893E210EE8CA06D10B28C&amp;gwt=regi\" target=\"_blank\">Richard H. Hoggart<\/a>, 95, star witness for <em>Lady Chatterley\u2019s Lover<\/em> in a 1960 trial that ended British censorship of that novel, died April 10 in London.<\/p>\n<p>Washington DC-based political blog <a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\" target=\"_blank\">Wonkette<\/a>\u00a0shares my alarm over\u00a0the threat to civilization\u00a0posed by the forces of darkness &#8212; book banners and their know-nothing ilk. Here are some links to relevant\u00a0Wonkette articles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/548160\/toronto-library-wont-protect-canadians-from-twin-scourges-of-violent-dr-seuss-books-bill-oreilly#more-548160\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto library won&#8217;t protect Canadians from twin scourges of violent Dr. Seuss books, Bill O&#8217;Reilly<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/548759\/victoria-jacksons-tiny-cartoon-genital-crusade-finally-making-it-to-the-big-time#more-548759\" target=\"_blank\">Victoria Jackson&#8217;s tiny cartoon genital crusade finally making it to the big time<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/548478\/hero-dad-arrested-for-trying-to-protect-kids-from-filthy-sex-book#more-548478\" target=\"_blank\">Hero dad arrested for trying to protect kids from filthy sex book<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/543939\/high-school-administration-teaches-student-journalists-valuable-lesson-we-will-censor-you-early-and-often\" target=\"_blank\">High school administration teaches student journalists valuable lesson: we will censor you early and often<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/547677\/derp-roundup-idaho-parents-call-cops-to-protect-children-from-banned-book\" target=\"_blank\">Derp roundup: Idaho parents call cops to protect children from banned book<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The articles speak for themselves, and you really should read them. I just want to add two comments.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2932\/14220817962_8ae23cbb06_t.jpg\" alt=\"cop_donut\" width=\"85\" height=\"100\" \/>When I read about the Meridian, Idaho parents (&#8220;derp roundup,&#8221; above) who called the police to stop a\u00a0teenaged volunteer from\u00a0handing out free copies of Sherman Alexie&#8217;s <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>, recently banned by the local\u00a0school board, I thought it would be fun to illustrate the link with a thumbnail of a cop holding a book. An exhaustive Google image search turned up not a single photo of a cop with a book. But it did turn up plenty of images\u00a0like the one to the left. So sad.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;hero dad&#8221; story above, about the father\u00a0who disrupted a school board meeting in an attempt to get Jodi Picoult&#8217;s novel <em>Nineteen Minutes<\/em> removed from a\u00a0Gilford, New Hampshire high school reading list, initially caught my interest because it reflects what I think is a developing trend: the politicization\u00a0of book banning, and how similar this man&#8217;s behavior was\u00a0to the disruptive Tea Partiers who were shouting down senators and congressmen at town hall meetings around the country a couple of years ago. I expect we&#8217;ll see more of the same as opposition to Common Core solidifies on the right. But then I read this\u00a0excerpt from Ms Picoult&#8217;s novel, which was assigned to ninth-graders at that New Hampshire school:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nShe\u2019d been floating along pleasantly in a haze of the familiar. Yes, Matt had kissed her \u2014 one short one, then a longer, hungry kiss, as his hand worked open the clasp on her bra. She lay lazy, spread beneath him like a feast, as he pulled off her jeans. But then, instead of doing what usually came next, Matt reared over her again. He kissed her so hard that it hurt. \u201cMmmph,\u201d she said, pushing at him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRelax,\u201d Matt murmured, and then he sank his teeth into her shoulder. He pinned her hands over her head and ground his hips against hers. She could feel his erection, hot against her stomach.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the way it normally was, but Josie had to admit that it was exciting. She couldn\u2019t remember ever feeling so heavy, as if her heart were beating between her legs. She clawed at Matt\u2019s back to bring him closer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah,\u201d he groaned, and he pushed her thighs apart. And then suddenly Matt was inside her, pumping so hard that she scooted backward on the carpet, burning the backs of her legs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait,\u201d Josie said, trying to roll away beneath him, but he clamped his hand over her mouth and drove harder and harder until Josie felt him come.<\/p>\n<p>Semen, sticky and hot, pooled on the carpet beneath her. Matt framed her face with his hands. \u201cJesus, Josie,\u201d he whispered, and she realized that he was in tears. \u201cI love you so goddamn much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Josie turned her face away. \u201cI love you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She lay in his arms for ten minutes and then said she was tired and needed to go to sleep. After she kissed Matt good-bye at the front door, she went into the kitchen and took the rug cleaner out from underneath the sink. She scrubbed it into the wet spot on the carpet, prayed it would not leave a stain.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Uh, what? Wonkette points out that the excerpted passage, the focus of angry dad&#8217;s anger, is\u00a0about date rape, not happy consensual sex. But I have to ask, honestly, whether this is appropriate reading for ninth-graders in a public school. I&#8217;m\u00a0not saying\u00a0the book should be banned or taken off the assigned reading list &#8230; but surely parents should have been told about the book beforehand and given other choices for their children to read instead.\u00a0As the article makes clear, that was in fact school policy, but they screwed up in this instance\u00a0and forgot to\u00a0notify parents.<\/p>\n<p>In a Tennessee school district, even though parents were told of\u00a0potentially offensive material in Mark Haddon&#8217;s novel <em>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time<\/em> and told they could select alternate\u00a0books for their\u00a0ninth-grade children to read in an honors English class, the school board thought maybe parents were too dumb to understand what they had been\u00a0told, so they just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/news\/local\/wilson\/2014\/05\/06\/tennessee-school-district-bans-book-f-bomb\/8765203\/\" target=\"_blank\">banned the book<\/a>\u00a0instead. Much simpler that way, don&#8217;t you think?<\/p>\n<p>Yay for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opb.org\/artsandlife\/article\/local-organization-rises-to-the-challenge-banned-books\/\" target=\"_blank\">Uprise Books Project<\/a>,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #222222;\">a nonprofit literary advocacy organization which distributes free copies of banned books.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/industry-news\/publishing-and-marketing\/article\/62086-writers-speak-out-against-s-c-literary-censorship.html\" target=\"_blank\">Writers rally<\/a> to oppose the South Carolina legislature&#8217;s planned retaliatory budget cuts to state colleges teaching\u00a0LGBTQ literature.<\/p>\n<p>I was shocked when someone in my book club posted\u00a0a trigger warning on our group&#8217;s Facebook page, warning us that a book\u00a0we are about to read (<em>Endurance: Shackleton&#8217;s Incredible Voyage<\/em>)\u00a0describes stranded explorers eating sled dogs to survive. Does not everyone already know that people stranded on glaciers and icebergs always wind up eating\u00a0the sled\u00a0dogs? And then each other? What are we, overindulged ten-year-olds? I hate censorship\u00a0from the feminist left just as much as I hate book banning from the misogynist right. For those of you who have already used up your month&#8217;s worth of free New York Times links, here&#8217;s a brief excerpt from an article about the push for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/18\/us\/warning-the-literary-canon-could-make-students-squirm.html\" target=\"_blank\">trigger warnings in higher education<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Should students about to read \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d be forewarned about \u201ca variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence,\u201d as one<a style=\"color: #326891;\" title=\"Rutgers student\u2019s article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailytargum.com\/opinion\/columnists\/philip_wythe\/trigger-warnings-needed-in-classroom\/article_cecbf732-9845-11e3-a65e-001a4bcf6878.html\">\u00a0Rutgers student\u00a0<\/a>proposed? Would any book that addresses racism \u2014 like \u201cThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn\u201d or \u201cThings Fall Apart\u201d \u2014 have to be preceded by a note of caution? Do sexual images from Greek mythology need to come with a viewer-beware label?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Makes me want to read <em>Huckleberry Finn<\/em> again\u00a0&#8212;\u00a0while I still can!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. The photo\u00a0is\u00a0titled &#8220;Girl reading &#8216;Mickey Mouse and the Submarine Pirates&#8217; comic book in newsstand with small dog lying across her lap.&#8221; It\u00a0was taken in 1947\u00a0by\u00a0Charles &#8220;Teenie&#8221; Harris,\u00a0lead photographer of one of the USA&#8217;s leading black newspapers, the\u00a0Pittsburgh Courier. I couldn&#8217;t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,250],"tags":[1964,48,1083],"class_list":["post-14591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","category-culture-wars","tag-banned-books","tag-censorship","tag-challenged-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14591"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14721,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions\/14721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}